On Saturday, September 27, protesters marched through Sunset Park to the 72nd Precinct, denouncing several violent incidents that occurred over the course of just a few weeks. Earlier this month onlookers caught police on camera kicking a fruit vendor and then body slamming a pregnant woman. Some residents say they’ve felt tension with the 72nd Precinct for years. Watch the video by Gwynne Hogan above, and read the story from El Diario by Cristina Loboguerrero below:

Over 200 people met at the corner of 45th Street and Second Avenue in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, to demand the resignation of NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton and the expulsion of the policemen who wrestled with a pregnant woman in that neighborhood last week.

Demonstrators marched along 15 blocks to the 72nd Precinct police station where the officers work. The woman, Sandra Amézquita, an immigrant from Colombia who is five months pregnant, was violently tackled by the police. The incident was recorded by a bystander on his cell phone (video at El Diario).

“We want Bill Bratton to resign, and we want the officers responsible for the attack on this woman to be laid off. All she wanted to do was protect her son who was stopped and frisked by the cops,” said Dennis Flores, founder of watchdog group El Grito de Sunset Park (The Scream of Sunset Park), who organized the march.

Ronel Lemus, Amézquita’s husband, spearheaded the march. According to the organizers, the victim was unable to attend because of her delicate health.

Lemus thanked the people who joined the march, and said in a broken voice that “I do not wish this on any of the families in our community.”

Rep. Nydia Velázquez (D – NY, 7th district) was also in attendance. “We demand an immediate response on the part of the police for their actions. We will not tolerate one more act of violence against our community,” said Velázquez.

Council member Carlos Menchaca (D – NYC District 38) joined the demonstration as well and said that it is important to listen to issues of the community and the police force, design solutions, and set them in motion. “We cannot allow these incidents to destroy the faith we have in the work good cops do every day,” said the council member.

The victim’s attorney, Sanford Rubinstein, said that he will meet with Brooklyn’s district attorney on Tuesday to request an investigation parallel to the one started by the NYPD in order to determine the officers’ liability.

“We want them to take care of us, not hurt us,” said Francisco Valdés, a resident of Sunset Park for over 40 years who points out that the 72nd Precinct officers’ belligerence is “escalating dangerously. We must stop this before it gets worse.”

As the White House urged Congress to withhold $600 million in nutrition assistance to Puerto Rico, officials responded angrily that this is only the latest in a series of President Trump’s attempts to stop the flow of federal aid to the island, El Nuevo Día reports. Political analyst Domingo Emanuelli found the Trump government's actions “barbaric,” and urged Puerto Rican Republicans to reconsider their allegiance. San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz said: “I shouted against Trump’s abuses from the start while others were chummy with him. Trump is not the plantation owner and we are not his slaves.” Link to original story →

The Indigenous Peoples March being held in Washington, D.C. on Jan. 18, a day ahead of the Women's March, will bring together groups from Puerto Rico to South America and Central America, reports Remezcla, to focus attention on issues from voter suppression to human trafficking to police brutality to what is called an “environmental holocaust” by activists. “I think it’s a collective cry for help because we’re in a time of crisis that we have not seen in a very long time,” says Nathalie Farfan, an Ecuadorean Indigenous woman and event organizer. Link to original story →

After vowing to create a more inclusive school system in North Carolina, the Durham Board of Education introduced a new department of second language services to serve newly-arrived immigrants who don’t speak English as a first language, Qué Pasa Noticias reports. One of the main goals of the initiative will be to coordinate a translation and interpretation system to help families participate in their children’s education. “As our Latinx population keeps growing we keep opening our schools’ doors to those arriving from all over the world,” said Superintendent Pascal Mubenga. Link to original story →

With Sen. Kamala Harris expected to announce her decision on a presidential run, The American Bazaar asks members of the Indian-American community about the potential candidacy of the California native. While some celebrated the possibility of Harris, who is of Jamaican-Indian descent, running amid the current political atmosphere, others say the country is "still not ready for a female president and certainly not a non-white." Link to original story →